Ankles and Spinning Platforms
by justaclassicgirl
Summary: In which Jess experiences firsthand the hardships of modeling, Nick Miller is brave (more than once), and Cece is very hung over but somehow manages to give good advice as always. Written as a gift for Sophie (barbramana1). Mwah, Sophie! *blows kisses*


This is a gift/request for Sophie, (otherwise known as barbramana1) one of the most awesome people on here. *blows kisses to Sophie* Never stop being awesome and leaving awesome reviews because you're awesome. :D

This has a slightly similar storyline to Doctor Nick, because it was the request. But it's set during Models, so that applies a lot to the storyline.

Hope you enjoy! (Especially you, Sophie!)

~justaclassicgirl

* * *

Jess was freaking out.

She had no experience whatsoever with modeling. The closest she'd ever gotten was "Fashion shows" with her mother after clothes shopping when she was younger to make sure everything really fit.

And yet, she'd stepped in to model in place of her hungover best friend (on a SPINNING PLATFORM no less!), in ungodly-high heels that she could barely stand in on level ground, let alone walk up stairs and stay balanced on said spinning platform with.

Now, she was stumbling along, the heavy fake eyelashes weighing her eyelids shut so she could barely see where she was going. She rocked precariously on the first step, her heels not going where she wanted them to go.

"Shit," she muttered, waving her arms out for balance.

On the sidelines, Cece groaned. This had been SUCH a bad idea. She could almost see Jess getting injured already. The bad feeling (as well as the bile) rose in her throat, and she felt nauseated at the though of Jess falling and cracking her head open. She had to stop this. But she had no way how; if she moved an inch, she'd vomit all over the place. If she talked too much, she'd vomit all over the place.

Suddenly, a thought struck her: she'd just call the loft. One of the guys could come and get her.

As Cece dialed the loft number, she saw Jess manage to get one heel on the platform before suddenly seeming to realize that it was spinning much faster than she anticipated.

"Come on, come on..." Cece pleaded into the phone as the dial tone rang and rang.

"Yup?"

Cece groaned audibly into the phone. She was hoping that Winston or Schmidt (ahhh, Schmidt) would pick up, but no, of course it HAD to be the most irresponsible one of the three. "Nick, it's Cece," she said, as carefully as she could to try and tame the rising puke. "There's a slight issue."

"Uh huh...what is it? Is Jess with you?"

"Jess IS the issue."

"What? Did something happen to her?" Nick asked frantically.

Cece rolled her eyes. She was so sick of the two of them dancing around their obvious feelings for each other.

"Not yet, but something will soon. You have to come pick us up right now."

"You're not making any sense!" Nick yelled through the phone. Cece had to pull it away from her ear so she didn't go deaf.

"Nick, I'm really hung over and I had this modeling gig and Jess stepped in to model for me but she's not having a very-" Cece heard the crowd murmuring, and saw that Jess's heel had gotten stuck in the gap between the spinning platform and the stationary ring around it and she was having a hard time getting it out. "-she's not having an easy time of it and I can feel that something bad is about to happen and you need to come RIGHT NOW because I can't drive!"

Then, Cece pitched forward and let loose. The promotional manager gave her a dirty look.

"Did you just throw up?"

Cece put the phone back to her ear. "GET OVER HERE!"

"Alright, alright, Cece. Calm down, I'm on my way."

She hung up without another word, and looked at her floundering best friend instead. Jess was still hopping about, trying to free her shoe. Cece wanted to just scream "FORGET THE GODDAMN SHOE!" but she was afraid that if she opened her mouth, worse things than those words would come out. Her stomach made a tremendous gurgling sound to support her point.

Jess was still managing to hop helplessly as the platform spun. She stayed like that for about ten grueling minutes, while Cece, the crowd, and a horrified manager looked on. Finally, Jess's foot came free with a loud popping sound, and she staggered backwards. She grimaced and held her ankle with one hand, swaying on only one leg now.

"Nick, where are you?" Cece thought.

No sooner did she think that did Nick burst through the backstage doors behind her, startling everyone in the room.

Including Jess, who started at the unexpected entrance, and then began waving her arms about frantically, trying her hardest to regain balance. But just when it looked like she had averted the crisis and was standing stationary once more, the heel of her shoe snapped in two.

Jess let out a shriek and finally tumbled backwards off the platform.

* * *

Nick ogled her for about a minute before his brain screamed for him to wake up and go get her, but a minute truly was more time than he deserved.

She was wearing a sparkling black dress that hugged her figure in all the right ways. The one shoe she was wearing matched her dress and made (at least half of) her look much taller. He could do without all the makeup, especially the thick fake eyelashes that were making her gorgeous blue eyes all squinty and hiding them from view. It was all unnecessary. Jess was beautiful just the way she was.

But the dress didn't hurt one bit.

(Nick had come to terms with his feelings for Jess a few months ago. He knew that honestly, he had to stop fighting himself and being miserable over it. He liked Jess, and that was that. Besides, she didn't like him like he liked her, or he would have detected SOMETHING by now. Jess was not one to hide her true feelings very well.)

His brain brought Nick back to reality, and he ran forward in the direction of the platform she was flailing her arms about on. He couldn't let her fall, he couldn't let her get hurt. He couldn't let anything bad happen to her. He couldn't, he couldn't, he couldn't...

Then he heard her scream. He was close, but not close enough.

He wasn't going to make it. Jess was going to fall. She was going to crash into the concrete.

Cece covered her eyes.

The crowd gasped and backed away from the platform.

The manager turned away.

And Nick did the only thing he could possibly do.

* * *

He dove into the air, sliding across the floor with arms outstretched as if he was trying to catch the baseball to win the championship.

* * *

Jess landed right in his arms.

* * *

"Nick," Jess said softly, looking up into his dark brown eyes. "You...you saved me."

Nick looked down at her and momentarily forgot how to breathe. He swallowed hard, and when he said "It was a three-foot-tall platform, Jess, not Mount Everest," his voice cracked unnaturally.

Jess smiled but the smile was cut short as she suddenly winced, shifting a bit in his arms. "Oww...Nick, I think I broke my ankle."

"How did you manage to do that?" he asked, confused. "You didn't even hit the floor!"

"I think-" she inhaled sharply as the pain shot through her leg with a jolt, "I think it happened when I was trying-" she inhaled again, "trying to get my foot out of my shoe. I might have pulled too hard."

"Still, I don't think it's broken," Nick said, but his voice trembled with concern as she let out a small sound of pain and squeezed her eyes shut. "But maybe we should take you to the hospital, get it checked out. How does that sound?"

She nodded, one of her hands clutching his shirt in a tight fist. She was clearly in a lot of pain.

Then the manager came over. "I don't care where you take her, just get her out of here!" he said.

Nick turtle-faced at him. "Geez, lay off, pal. We're going!"

"You'd better be," the man said angrily. "That stupid woman just ruined this show! I don't want her around me ever again!"

Nick could feel his blood boiling. "Don't you talk about her that way."

"She isn't even that pretty," the man said, clearly ignoring Nick. "Even with all the makeup."

Nick was fuming. He could feel the color rushing to his cheeks, the rage building inside him.

"If only her modeling agency-" here he pointed to Cece, "-had sent me an experienced, beautiful woman THAT WASN'T HUNG OVER like they were supposed to, we wouldn't be here."

Nick looked down at Jess. Her eyes were still closed, and she gave no indication that she'd hear a word of it, except a single tear trickled out of one of her closed eyes and rolled down her cheek, leaving a small wet spot on his shirt where she was pressing her face against.

That was the last straw. Nobody made Jess cry, not on his watch.

Nick placed Jess gently on the ground, whispering "Sorry, Jess, just for a minute," when she groaned, and then stood up straight and looked the man right in the eyes with a glare so ferocious that it would vaporize a puppy.

"Jessica is BEAUTIFUL!"

And with that, Nick punched the man as hard as he could in the face.

The crowd gasped collectively, but then began to clap. One guy screamed "He was a dick!" and another woman yelled "He got what he deserved!"

Cece sighed. "Oh God."

Nick then scooped up Jess, whose blue eyes were wide with confusion. "Nick, did you-" she began, but he cut her off.

"I'm going to take you to the hospital now, Jess. We don't want to go too long without getting it checked out."

"Nick-"

"Shhh, just relax. Don't think about anything. Just relax. It'll make the pain go away faster."

"Nick, stop avoiding it, I know what you're trying to-"

"JESS!" Cece exclaimed. They had already reached the doors where she was standing. "Oh my God, babe, are you okay?"

"I've been better," Jess said, wincing. "And I'd be even better if Nick would just-"

"Cece, are you going to come with us to the hospital?" Nick interjected quickly, sending her his most pleading, desperate glance.

Cece shot him a suspicious look, but said all the same, "Sure, Nick, _someone_ has to make sure you don't mess this up."

Her words stung, even though Nick knew she was just being her usual self and trying to cover up for him, and he flinched visibly.

Cece immediately felt bad about it, for she knew how her best friend felt about him and because of that, she didn't really want to hurt him, but a few minutes later she was too busy throwing up to care.

* * *

One long, tension-and-Cece's-vomit-filled car ride later, the trio finally arrived at the hospital.

Cece helped Nick lift Jess out of the backseat. He carried her in, placed her in a wheelchair that was by the entrance, and pushed her to the front desk, ignoring her attempts to get his attention and her frustration when he refused to respond.

Nick then all-too-gladly handed her over to the nurses, explaining the situation before he let them take her. They told him they would take her to get X-rayed, and then they would set or wrap her ankle as needed. They also gave Cece a stack of forms with questions about Jess, since she was Jess's emergency contact and Jess had listed her as knowing most of her medical history. Nick sat beside Cece as she filled in the forms, and when she'd finished, the two of them sat in utter silence for at least twenty agonizing minutes.

Finally, Cece decided to break the ice.

"What are you doing, Nick?" she sighed.

"W-what do you mean?" he asked, caught off-guard.

"Why are you pushing her away?"

"Again, what do you mean?"

She huffed. "Honestly, as if you didn't know!"

Nick slumped down in his chair and pulled up his hoodie's hood, wishing he could just melt into it and stay there forever, and said nothing.

Cece sighed again, contemplating what she was going to say. Would Jess be hurt if she said it?

She would.

But she'd be hurt more if Cece didn't say it.

And Cece hated seeing Jess hurt.

So she said it.

"She really cares about you, Nick."

He muttered, "I know."

"No, Nick, you don't _get_ it," Cece said, exasperated. "She _really cares_ about _YOU_."

He looked up from his slumping position, a new light in his eyes. "Oh."

And then: "Really?"

Cece smiled down at him and nodded. "And if _you_ care about _her_ at all-"

Nick suddenly jumped up straight out of the chair and threw his hood down. "I have to find her." He started to run down the hall, but then turned and said, "Thanks, Cece!"

Cece grinned at him. "About time, Miller."

* * *

Jess flinched as the nurse started wrapping her ankle. It wasn't broken (the X-ray had determined that), just sprained, but it still had to be wrapped so it could heal quicker. Every time the nurse pulled tighter on the bandage, a fresh wave of pain crashed over her body.

Finally, the nurse said, "Last one. I'm not going to lie, this will probably hurt a lot. But please try not to scream. I understand it will hurt but there are other patients here that are trying to rest, especially on this floor."

Jess gritted her teeth and nodded as the nurse took the bandage in her hands and wrapped it around. "I'm going to pull, okay?" she said.

Jess closed her eyes.

The door flew open.

Just as the nurse gave a mighty tug on the bandage, harder than she ever had, Nick Miller crossed the room in one stride and pressed his lips hard against those of Jess.

Her scream, her pain, the nurse, the room...everything disappeared when his lips touched hers.

When they broke apart, her ankle was wrapped and the nurse gone, they both smiled and stared into each other's eyes as if no one else existed in the entire world.

So of course, they had to do it one more time.

The End

* * *

Hope you liked! :)

Please, as always, review!


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